The IDF assesses that Hamas is not interested in a major conflict; its main concern is the stability of its rule in Gaza.

Dear Reader,
As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before.
Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications,
like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations,
we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open
and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news
and analyses from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.

A wide
variety of weapons is involved, but the concern is primarily about two types –
sophisticated, Russian-made antitank missiles, such as the laser-guided Kornet,
and shoulder-to-air missiles, like those that have gone missing from Libyan
warehouses.

The other main concern for the IDF is that a soldier will be
abducted. Now that the Schalit deal has been completed, the army believes there
is increased motivation within Gaza to abduct another soldier, and that tunnels
are being dug into Israel to that end.

This is the situation on the Gaza
front three years after Operation Cast Lead – there is an increase in weaponry
and a new threat from anti-tank missiles, but at the same time, the Southern
Command believes Hamas and Islamic Jihad are not interested in a large-scale
conflict, at least for the time being.

In general, the IDF sums up the
past year along the Gaza border as a success. It says 100 Palestinians were
killed over the past year in military operations and that nine were
civilians.

This is nearly a 1:10 civilian-to-combatant ratio that is
unprecedented in any other conflict in the world.

JPOST VIDEOS THAT MIGHT INTEREST YOU:

The United Nations, for
example, estimates an average three-to-one ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths
in conflicts worldwide. That is three civilians for every combatant killed. Over
the past year in Gaza, it has been one civilian for almost every 10 combatants
killed.

The IDF continues to maintain a high-level of alert along the
border and to train its troops to know what to do in the event they are attacked
and one of them is abducted. Shooting at the getaway car even at the risk of
hitting their comrade is expected, senior officers explain.

It also
requires the IDF to get ready for another offensive in the Gaza Strip, one that
Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz said on Tuesday will happen either “sooner
or later.” The operation will likely be different than Cast Lead but will be
based on two similar principles – first to take Hamas by surprise with a
devastating opening salvo and second to aim for a restoration of deterrence and
several more years of quiet.

The IDF knows, though, that when it enters
Gaza, it will face a different adversary than the one who repeatedly ran away
from it during the January 2009 ground offensive.

Take Hamas’s Rafah
Brigade as an example.

It numbers around 2,000 fighters who are divided
into four battalions. The next time the IDF enters Gaza it expects to meet small
squads of terrorists each, spread out throughout the urban areas and laying in
ambush. The challenge will be to locate them and remove their element of
surprise.

Currently, the IDF assesses that Hamas is not interested in a
major conflict. The first reason is the organization’s draw to diplomacy and
international relations, demonstrated by Ismail Haniyeh’s fund-raising trip to
Qatar, Egypt, Libya and other countries.

Haniyeh is not the only Hamas
official traveling overseas these days. Ahmed Ja’bari, the group’s supreme
military commander, has been spending a significant portion of every month in
Egypt.

Hamas’s main concern is the stability of its rule in Gaza,
challenged today by Islamic Jihad, which receives more Iranian support and
funding than Hamas, as well as from the direction of Mahmoud Abbas whose
unilateral moves at the UN caused Hamas to feel left behind. That is why it is
moving forward with the efforts to reach a reconciliation agreement with Fatah,
even though it will likely not last for long.

Where Hamas does operate or
turn a blind eye to others is in Egypt, which is turning into one the IDF’s
greatest concerns for 2012. A visit to the Israeli-Egyptian border on Wednesday
clarified just how concerned Israel is. Bulldozers work there 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, clearing mounds of sand to be able to lay cement and erect a
six-meter fence.

If the fence was initially built to stop African
infiltrators in search of work, the main focus now is stopping the next terror
attack from Sinai. The last one, in August, claimed the lives of eight
Israelis.

Hamas is to some extent, caught between a rock and a hard
place. On the one hand, it works to stop attacks against Israel to prevent a
large IDF offensive, but at the same time turns a blind eye to attacks from
Sinai or even along the Gaza border against military targets so it will not be
accused of neglecting its commitment to armed resistance.

Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>

The Jerusalem Post Customer Service Center can be contacted with any questions or requests:
Telephone: *2421 * Extension 4 Jerusalem Post or 03-7619056 Fax: 03-5613699E-mail: subs@jpost.com
The center is staffed and provides answers on Sundays through Thursdays between 07:00 and 14:00 and Fridays only handles distribution requests between 7:00 and
13:00
For international customers: The center is staffed and provides answers on Sundays through Thursdays between 7AM and 6PM
Toll Free number in Israel only 1-800-574-574
Telephone +972-3-761-9056
Fax: 972-3-561-3699
E-mail: subs@jpost.com